Listen to KFM Live

Ever wondered how long it takes for your muscles to recover after a hectic gym session?

The Naked Scientist, Dr Chris Smith speaking to Africa Melane, on The Eusebius McKaiser Show had this to say.

The thing about exercise is that it does take time to become fit and there are a number of changes that happen to your body. They happen in the minutes to days after exercise and in the days to weeks after exercise. So to become fully fit, does take a number of weeks and to really really improve your performance after that, takes months.

Dr Chris Smith, The Naked Scientist

He said there are biochemical changes. You change the way blood flows in the body and you change the levels of those chemicals that price oxygen of your hemoglobin and getting into muscles.

In the slightly longer term, muscles start to change their biochemical composition, he adds. They become a chemical called myoglobin which is used to scavenge oxygen away from blood. This increases the amount of protein that does the work in a muscle and that takes a while, he elaborates.

You can see that it isn't something that you go to the gym once and immediately get all the benefits. You have got to change your biochemistry. You then also change the way the muscles store energy, you change what muscles are made of and you grow new blood vessels in muscles.

Dr Chris Smith, The Naked Scientist

All of these things take several weeks before they are optimum. Then its a case of building up the muscle and maintaining those changes, he says